NJCA Year in Review 2001
Highlights and Victories |
January – February
- NJCA urged the state to take strong legislative action against predatory lending, at a State Senate Commerce Committee hearing regarding the issue . We challenged claims that predatory lending is not a problem by providing numerous examples of this consumer threat.
- At the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), we fought Verizon’s plan to deregulate services for small businesses, non-profits and community groups. NJCA testified at three public hearings across the state along with our allies.
- NJCA demonstrated our opposition to President Bush’s proposed tax cut when he came to New Jersey. Dressed in faux furs and jewels, NJCA protested the chicanery of Bush’s tax plan, which drained resources needed for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
- We also released "Bad Policy, Bad Medicine: Bush’s Plans for Taxes and Prescription Drugs Unfair to Working Families and Seniors" showing Bush’s tax cut plan was a giveaway for the richest Americans and a drain on federal funding. NJCA called on President Bush and Congress to be fair and to do first things first: pass comprehensive Medicare prescription drug coverage!
- Kicking off Fair And Clean Elections (FACE) at the Annual Chamber of Commerce Train, NJCA handed out bars of soap and descriptions of this proposal for full public financing of state gubernatorial and legislative elections.
March – April
- Anti-predatory lending legislation was introduced in both houses of the State Legislature. This legislation, with our proposed amendments, would prevent many of the abusive lending practices that affect New Jersey’s homeowners and homebuyers.
- Dozens of NJCA members participated in a Paid Family Leave Lobby Day at the State House. Constituents urged legislators to create family leave benefits so that workers can afford to take time off to care for ill family members or new born/adopted children.
- On the "National Day of Action Against the Tax Cut," NJCA collected 1,000 postcards opposing Bush’s tax cut and delivered them to U.S. Senator Torricelli. We organized two meetings with 25 senior, disability, health care, labor, housing, anti-poverty, religious and consumer organizations with Sen. Torricelli to urge him to oppose President Bush’s tax cut.
May – June
- NJCA announced our discovery of a massive predatory property scheme affecting more than 85 first-time homebuyers, all low-income people of color living primarily in Essex County. The scheme was a featured, exclusive series in The Star Ledger and received statewide coverage, resulting in more than 100 additional complaints from other predatory lending victims.
- Parents, children and community leaders joined NJCA’s Inspection on Request campaign at Newark City Hall where we delivered paint chips, collected by area residents, to the City Council members to demand an inspection on request ordinance.
- We publicized the high costs of prescription drugs by releasing national reports detailing the price of the top 50 prescribed drugs, which have risen in price far exceeding the rate of inflation.
- NJCA sent roses to Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and Assembly Speaker Jack Collins, demonstrating that the Blue Cross Blue Shield conversion bill was a sweetheart deal. We urged legislators to protect the public if BCBS converts to a for-profit company.
- The State Senate unanimously passed the Open Public Records Act, which provides public access to government records. NJCA continued to mobilize for similar action in the Assembly.
- NJCA spoke out against racial profiling and police brutality at the Statewide March.
July – August
- With the NJ Developmental Disability Council and its Monday Morning Project, NJCA began a new effort to mobilize mass transit riders to vote in the November elections. Transit Vote NJ organized 50 groups into the campaign to register voters and improve mass transit. We held over 45 voter registration drives at key transit locations around the state and in urban areas.
- NJCA and our allies detailed concerns regarding Prudential’s proposed demutualization and its impact on Prudential’s 12 million policyholders at a NJ Department of Banking & Insurance’s hearing.
- U.S. Senator Jon Corzine joined NJCA’s fight to help victims of the Essex County property flipping scam, urging U.S. Housing and Urban Development Asst. Secretary Mel Martinez and his office to work with NJCA.
- NJCA held a press conference with Congressman Rush Holt and religious, labor, disability, senior and community organizations to protest the report released by President Bush’s Commission proposing privatization of Social Security.
- We organized 5 leafleting events in U.S. Representative Marge Roukema’s district collecting hundreds of signatures for Fair And Clean Elections. Over 40 groups endorsed NJCA’s FACE campaign. With Public Citizen, NJCA released a report showing that the U.S. drug industry spent an unprecedented $262 million on political influence in the 1999-2000 election cycle: $177 million on lobbying, $65 million on issue ads and $20 million on campaign contributions.
September – October
- NJCA led the Transit Vote campaign’s 100 volunteers to register 2800 voters in 20 different locations around the state on one day, bringing our total to 5000. We assisted two Monday Morning Network Disability Networks with county-wide candidate forums, holding elected officials accountable on issues affecting people with disabilities.
- We released a report with Michele Naples, College of New Jersey, and Meryl Franks, Bush Center for Child Development and Social Policy, showing that Paid Family Leave Insurance would cost $1.00 a week per worker.
- NJCA published a voter guide for the Gubernatorial election, so that voters could evaluate the candidates’ positions on critical policy issues.
- We opposed Verizon’s request to the BPU to enter NJ’s long distance market. The BPU refused to permit public testimony in these proceedings, so NJCA organized protests against the exclusion of public comment.
- NJCA signed a $1.12 billion dollar Community Reinvestment Act agreement with Washington Mutual, which has acquired The Dime Savings Bank of NY. In addition to commitments for below market rate loans, construction and permanent financing for non-profit affordable housing developers, and small business loans for women and minority owned businesses, the agreement commits the bank to neither make nor purchase predatory loans. It is the only state-specific CRA agreement that has been signed by the bank.
- Our Financial Education Center expanded to accommodate a new Technology Room, where up to 10 consumers at a time can take advantage of small group trainings to master the Internet for on-line banking and other services. The on-line training is part of the Center’s workshop series, which help residents better understand basic financial services, including basic banking, money management and consumer education topics. Staff conduct these trainings in our location for residents as well as on site for community organizations and social service providers. In 2001, we conducted more than 200 trainings on and off site for more than 3600 consumers.
November – December
- With People for the American Way and the NAACP, NJCA initiated an Election Protection program to ensure that people could cast their votes and have their votes count on Election Day. We deployed over 30 people to polling places in Essex County and helped scores of voters cast their ballots. We also surveyed the polling places to determine if they were accessible for people with disabilities.
- NJCA pushed for the passage of the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Act, which would bring financial assistance to property owners to help pay for lead abatement. We will re-introduce this crucial bill in the new legislative session.
- Fighting for fairness, NJCA drew attention to the problem of PNC’s proposal to impose a payroll check-cashing fee even on its own customers, forcing the bank to enter into negotiations with NJCA to change its policy.
- We organized an informational picket at the Newark office of Chase Manhattan Bank, which has refused to release information and delayed any possible solutions for more than twenty-three predatory lending victims whose loans it now services. NJCA led community groups and victims in a holiday picket, featuring Chase as the "Grinch" who stole Christmas from these families.
- NJCA claimed victory in our efforts to secure a statewide universal energy affordability program for low-income consumers. The BPU adopted our platform for a fair share program to create affordable bills for customers and to better organize energy assistance programs.
- NJCA and the Patients’ First Coalition celebrated the passage of legislative curtailing mandatory overtime. The law eliminates forced overtime for health care workers and allows workers to improve their performance, resulting in better care for patients.
- After much pressure from NJCA and others, the State Assembly finally approved the Open Public Records Act, although with small revisions. Public records now belong to New Jersey residents!
- NJCA stopped a proposed fare hike for NJ Transit riders, which unfairly targeted seniors and people with disabilities. We organized Transit Vote members to speak out at public hearings against the proposed fare increase. As a result, we stopped the hike’s worst provisions.
Honors and Awards
- NJCA received the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Quality Award.
- The Alliance for Disabled in Action gave NJCA its "Community Partner of the Year" award for our work with people with disabilities.
- Our CRA Organizer, Leila Amirhamzeh, was selected as one of 13 consumer representatives on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Utility Consumer Education
- NJCA expanded our energy education outreach program to all utility service areas around the state. Our effort, educating consumers on their rights and opportunities under energy deregulation, reached over 500 organizations in 2001, bringing the project total to more than 2000 since its start. We have reached over 75,000 people with energy education information.
- We also increased our telecommunications education project, reaching seniors and low-income residents in Northern and Central New Jersey. Customers at these presentations learn how to understand their phone bills, make smart telecommunications decisions and protect themselves from fraud. This project reached over 100 organizations and their 3500 members in 2001.
Throughout the Year
- We opened the door to first-time homeownership to 1,000 families in New Jersey, through our Loan Counseling Program. Families get assistance with budgeting, credit, and Community Reinvestment Act mortgages. 4,000 families are actively involved in this and our home improvement counseling program. NJCA launched the Homeownership Institute, a series of classes for first-time homebuyers, co-sponsored by municipalities like Asbury Park and Jersey City.
- NJCA held five Women’s Housing Initiative seminars around the state, in Trenton, Perth Amboy, Paterson, Plainfield and Newark. Over 1,000 people, mostly female heads of households, attended these standing room only events to hear new home owners talk about the challenges they overcame to purchase a home of their own. Our mentoring program "Been There, Done That" pairs women who have purchased homes through us with women who are entering counseling and face long-term credit repair. 25 mentors are now working with loan counseling clients.
- Thousands of consumers saved as much as 17% on their annual heating costs through our Oil Group, which pools buying power to negotiate for lower oil prices.
- NJCA trained over 50 community leaders and agency staff in Newark and Camden on lead poisoning prevention. This adds to our infrastructure of lead poisoning prevention advocates throughout the state. Also, as part of our efforts in increase abatements, we held two "Lead Abatement Financing Forums" informing more than 60 property owners of their responsibilities and of below-market rate loans available.
- We worked with the Prescription Access Litigation campaign, filing lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for misrepresentation in their advertising, overcharging and manipulating the Average Wholesale Price.
